This invention relates to microwave enhanced deep fat fryers for cooking food products.
It is widely held that deep fat frying is the fastest traditional method of cooking food by thermal energy alone. Deep fat frying imparts a special flavor to the food product as some of the cooking oil is absorbed by the food product during the cooking process. Additionally food products cooked by deep fat frying exhibit an appealing crispy texture and brown appearance. Microwave cooking alone cannot match the taste, texture or appearance of the food product cooked by deep fat frying.
Customer feedback indicates that to be successful, high volume fast food restaurants must offer fast, hot, attractive and consistently cooked food products. For high volume restaurants some deep fat fried foods, such as chicken nuggets, are normally fried ahead of time in a deep fat fryer and discarded if not sold within a few minutes. This is because the length of frying time is longer than the targeted order-placement to order-filled time required for efficient fast food operation. This method often detracts from the quality of the product when served since it may have been cooked many minutes earlier. Discarding cooked but unordered food products significantly increases waste. Microwave enhanced deep fat frying to order within the target time produces a hotter, more consistent product, while maintaining its deep fat fried appearance, crispness and flavor.
Ideally, a microwave enhanced deep fat fryer should make efficient use of microwave energy by delivering it directly to the food product while minimizing the use of microwave energy to heat the frying oil. Additionally, a microwave enhanced deep fat fryer should require no special training to use, have the same form and require no more floor space than current non-enhanced deep fat fryers.